Sunday, November 05, 2006

Geek Defined.

I don't see myself as a geek, but I always thought I had a handle on what it meant. Until, of course, last Wednesday when attending a geek dinner in London, a number of people asked me what a geek actually was? A hip nerd, a boffin or just a member of the digirati?

Coincidentally, today, a piece by the tremendous James Gleick about the OED provides the answer.

"Take geek. It was not till 2003 that O.E.D.3 caught up with the main modern sense: “a person who is extremely devoted to and knowledgeable about computers or related technology.” Internet chitchat provides the earliest known reference, a posting to a Usenet newsgroup, net.jokes, on Feb. 20, 1984."

Or is it the answer? It's fine by me but I'm sure there will be some readers who disagree. People create understanding based on their own particular worldview and definitions are slippier than we imagine. If you can soldify one around your product/service, you've achieved something special.

I think that tech geeks are only one kind of geek (and likely the first kind). I think that a geek can be anyone that dives into the micro-technicality of any issue or subject. There can be management geeks, English geeks, etc. IMHO - echolalias - I think you might just qualify!!! :-) I know I do - and I'm not that technical at all (when it comes to computers).